


Raise a Glass

by Kalandan



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Drinking, Drunk characters, Family Issues, Friendly advice, Gen, Pacific Rim Secret Santa 2017, Parenting Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 10:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13212216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kalandan/pseuds/Kalandan
Summary: In 2018: Pentecost and Herc talk over a drink.  Parenting advice is hard to come by during the Kaiju War.Then flash forward to the end of the war,  Mako and Raleigh have their hands full with Jake in town. New years is always interesting.





	1. Raise a glass for Fathers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jocelyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jocelyn/gifts).



> Hope this fills your prompt requests. Sorry, but it sparked a drunken muse.

Stacker checks his phone for the name of the restaurant one more time.  He looks up and sees the name of the place hanging on a small sign board a block ahead of him.  The Hawaiian afternoon is warm, and humid, he is greeted by the AC of the place first.  His eyes adjusting to the darker interior, he blinks off the sun shine.  He scans the room for his friend.  

Stacker spots him as the hostess comes up to him. “I’m meeting a friend.”

The hostess nods as Stacker walks by her.  

Stacker’s steps loud in the small establishment. The hardwood floors reverberating the sound of his polished boots.  He slides into the chair next to Herc at the Bar. Herc already has a drink in hand, which he raises to flag down the bartender.

“Hercules,” he nods then redirects his attention to the bartender. “I’ll have one of whatever he’s having.”

The woman behind the bar nods to that and grabs another glass with ice.

Stacker returns his attention to Herc. “It's a bit early for hard alcohol, isn’t it?”

“Trin’ to block out some nasty stuff.” he makes a vague open handed gesture towards his head.

“Ah” Stacker snifs the glass and then sips it, its strong stuff. “Anything in particular?”  Stacker isn’t here to play a guessing game.

Herc sips his drink, grimaces, “Shit from Scott’s all.”

“Ah.” Stacker nods to that and raises his glass to Herc. They toast and take a long sip of their drinks. “My apologies.” Stacker then looks around.

Herc downs the last of his drink. “Chuck isn’t old enough to drink, he’s with his cousin’s.  Some kind of touristy trip with the Brown’s. Tch, teenagers.” Herc shakes his head.

Stacker looks around once more. “Teenagers are… difficult on occasion.”

Herc pulls up short, “Mako being a pain in your side?” He looks surprised.

“She is never a pain. Its more…” Stacker looks into this glass, “my son.”

Herc almost falls off his stool. “What?”

Stacker doesn’t respond to Herc, but finished off his drink.  Placing the glass down, he looks to Herc,“Yes. I found it equally surprising at first.” He rotates the glass between his hands. “His mother told him he could contact me after his 15th birthday.”

“What? You have a kid and you didn’t know until a month ago?!”

“Yes, that is it exactly.”

Herc waves the bartender down, “Leave the bottle. Thanks” she pulls it from the shelf, removed the speed pour and holds up the bottle, assessing the quantity left. Then walks away, leaving it between the two men.

Stacker, looking straight ahead asks, “Any words of advice for raising a son?”

“Hahah, not unless you came looking for the source of the world’s worst parenting skills. I am the last person you should be asking for advice.”

Stacker pours them each another glass. Stares at Herc as he sips it. “Surely you’re not that bad. Charles seems to adore you.”

“You should already know Stacks that child adoration doesn’t mean you’re training them right.” Herc shakes his head, “Besides Chuck’s 15, nothing much gets in or out of a teenagers mind that isn’t somewhat superficial.”

“Jake, that is my son’s name, is the same age.  His 15th birthday was a month ago.”

“Holy!” Herc stares again. Swallows hard. Puts his drink down on the bar top, pushes bothe the glass and bottle away from himself. He turns to face Stacker fully.  “Okay, so here is the little scrap of advice I have for you, figure out if they need a hug or a kick in the pants.  I probably did neither often enough with Chuck. Where is your son?”

“Jacob is living in London with his mother.”

“He just called you up out of the blue? Like, hey, how are you? I’m your illegitimate son?” Herc’s eyebrows raise towards his hairline.

Stacker finished his second drink and pushes the glass away. “That is about right.”

Herc whistles low. “Stacks, that is rough. Raising a kid is bad enough, but not knowing they exist!” Herc shakes his head, “You are at a serious disadvantage.”

“How so?”

“Well for one thing, the kid clearly wants a father figure in his life. Otherwise why would he have contacted you? And two, he wants things from you, and you’ve never even met the kid. If he has any expectations, you’re screwed. Plus throw Mako into the mix, and I don’t even know how that works.”

“I must admit I’m not sure if I’m going to introduce Mako to Jacob.”

“Is he coming out here?”

“Possibly.”

“You want real advice?” Herc makes serious eye contact.

“Yes.”

“Don’t do what I did. Let your kid live a life outside of a war zone, outside of the shatterdome.”

Stacker is surprised by Herc, but then again he shouldn’t be, Herc has been raising Charles in the Shatterdome since the Sydney attack.  Its enough time to get accustomed to a lot of quirks of growing up.  

“Hercules,”

“No, that is my only good advice. I love Chuck, but he’s not a happy kid, and I don’t know how to fix that outside of trying to lead a normal life. And life in the shatterdome is anything but that. You of all people should know that.”

Stacker nods, whether he agrees or not, he sees some of the logic in it.

“Mako, she seems different. But there is little sense in bringing a kid from London into a shatterdome at this point.” Herc shakes his head. “You got time to stay for lunch?”

“Hmm” Stacker checks his watch, Tamsin and Mako will be out getting their spa treatments for another hour. “Yes. I do.”

“Alright.” he gets the bartenders attention again. They order then Herc asks, “Do you know anyting else about the kid?”

“Jacob? He’s an accomplished athlete, but trouble finds him often it seems…”

“Is trouble finding him, or he looking for it?”

“That I can’t say.” Stacker has to admit. Ideas of things to ask popping into Stackers mind for his next scheduled call.  

Herc may say he’s a bad parent, but at least he has ideas on parenting a troubled son that can be insightful for Stacker.  Their situations aren’t the same, but they’re both parents at the end of the day.


	2. Raise a glass for Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raleigh and Mako go to a big New Years party with her brother Jake. Jake gets drunk and Raleigh and Mako take care of him, while sharing stories and some snark about their siblings.  
> (set post Kaiju war)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really know who Jake Pentecost is yet, so I tried to work around that, and made some stuff up about him. Hope this fills the prompt wish.

Raleigh grabs Jake by the waist, ducks under Jake's arm, and hoists the well inebriated man into a mostly standing position.  Mako rolls her eyes.

“What? You got a better plan?” Raleigh, not entirely sober, gets mildly defensive.

“The look was at him, not you. You’re fine.” she waves her hand and the pair.

“Oh, well in that case, lead on, I’m followin’ you.”

“Ah right, I do have all the keys and stuff.”

“Yeah ya kinda do.” Raleigh grabs Jake's hand that is slung over Raleigh’s shoulder.  Keeping Jake somewhat balanced.  

They shuffle and stumble their way out of the party, and to the elevator.  Raleigh leans Jake against the corner.  They mercifully are not stopped by anyone in the lobby on their way out the front door of this fancy hotel and banquet place.  Raleigh doesn’t really care at this point. Carrying more of Jake’s weight as the intoxication seems to reach higher levels, and the other man’s functions diminish.  

Mako hails a cab, and Raleigh is thankful it's a minivan, way easier to negotiate head heights for both of them this way.  Mako helps steer Jake into the back seat, and Raleigh follows him in, making sure to keep him propped up and belted in.  Mako eyes the pair a moment, then shrugs, and gets in the cabs front seat to direct them back to their hotel.  Which for the life of him, Raleigh wouldn’t be able to name, let alone find it.  City’s have never been his strong suit.

 

They stop and start a few times en route, and Raleigh throws his arm in front of Jake to keep him from tipping too far forward in his seat.  Mako throws a look over her shoulder at him, he reads it as a question.

“We’re fine. Just get us back to the hotel already.”

She nods and turns back to the cab driver, pointing at a street ahead to take.

They get Jake into the hotel with as little fuss as possible, which is a small miracle.  Mako somehow convinced the bellhop to lend them the luggage cart.  Raleigh loading Jake onto the cart once the elevator doors closed.  Mako and Raleigh giggle looking at Jake slumped on the cart,  his legs folded up like a newborn giraffe.

“He’s gonna have bruises from this tomorrow.” Raleigh manages after the giggles subside.

“Well that’s his own fault for getting blitzed at the party.” Mako rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, but I feel a little bad.”

“Really? Why? Because he’s a grown man that forgot what his alcohol tolerances are? I certainly won’t feel bad about it. Tch!” She turns as the floor dings and the doors open again.

Raleigh takes up position pushing the cart, Mako pulls to direct them.  

“Alright, you win that round. But we still have to deal with him, hungover tomorrow.” Raleigh’s good nature showing.

Mako waves a hand, “We’ll just do what sensei always taught us.”

Raleigh raises an eyebrow, “Oh? What’s that?”

“Drink water, energy drink and a breakfast sandwich. Cures most evils that drink inflicts.”

“Hmm, not bad advice.”

 

The Hotel they are staying in is nice, but the halls seem to go on forever.  She has time while walking down the hall to fumble the key card out. They make it into the room, and wrestle Jake mostly prone form off the cart and onto the first bed.  

Raleigh takes Jake’s shoes, belt and miscellaneous stuff from Jake’s pockets.  Mako gets water, some pain killers and the pillows prepped to prop her brother up right. She wakes him enough to get the water and painkillers down before he passes out again.   She gets the pillows all situated around him before she steps back and sits next to Raleigh on the little loveseat sofa in the room.  

He looks from her to Jake. “That was more of a workout than I was anticipating.”

“Yeah,” she sighs, “I love him, but he’s a handful somedays.”

“Handful? I had both hands full carrying his sorry drunk self up here.” his tone filled with exasperation.  

“Come on, as if you hadn’t done that before.” She looks at Raleigh, and leans into him gently. She looks back at her brother.

Raleigh rolls his eyes this time. “Oh please. I had to play chaperone and caretaker for Yancy FAR more than once!”

“That bad?” Mako looks back to Raleigh, her face open, looking for more.

“Did I not tell you about the time we were stationed in Los Angeles, through New Years?”

Mako shakes her head.

“Ah, well suffice it to say that this isn’t the worst thing that could happen.  Tendo took Yancy out, and he called me before they got back to the shatterdome.  Wanted me to alert medical.”

“What?!” Mako’s eyes bugged out a little.

“Oh yeah.  Tendo was sure Yance had alcohol poisoning. I stupidly didn’t get medical involved. I was too afraid we’d get kicked out or something.” Raleigh shrugs. “Anycase, I met them and got Yance back to our bunk.  He spent half the night on the floor in the bathroom hugging the toilet. And when he finally let go of the toilet he had the shakes.”

“This was the responsible, follows directions well, poster child of the PPDC Yancy?” Mako was shocked.

“Oh yes, scandalous right? PR would have crucified him if they knew. He owed me BIG time for keeping that quiet.” Raleigh lapses into a quiet. His gaze fixed on the floor. The room is quiet until Jake snorts and half wakes himself, then falls back into a resting state.

 

Raleigh reaches out and gently squeezes Mako’s hand. “I don’t think Jake is so far gone that we have to count his breathing rate. I put that into the win category.”

“Did you have to do that before?” Mako looked pale, shock and worry mixed on her face.

“Yeah, Yancy liked to party. And in fairness I did too. But sometimes you have to look out for family, especially when they do stupid things.”  

“Jake used to send me pictures of Jaeger graffiti in London.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad..”

“It wasn’t,” Mako shakes her head. “Until I found out later that he was the one making most of it in the first place.”

Raleigh’s turn to drop his jaw. “What?! No way, how’d Stacks take that?”

“Sensei, was, ummm, less than pleased. But his work was really good.” she smiles looking at Jake now. She pulls her phone out and flips through some images quickly, “these are all his.” She hands the phone to Raleigh. He swipes through at least a dozen photos, each brightly colored, different Jaegers shown in each, some battle poses, some cartoonized, some just a close up of a head or hand or foot.  Raleigh too is impressed by them.

“These are amazing. Wow.”

“He’s lucky that Sensei found out from a family friend and not the police.”

“Oh, so he didn’t get caught?”

“No, he was far too quick and clever for that. Well, at least most of the time.”

Raleigh raises a questioning eyebrow. “Go on.”

Mako smirks, looking back at Jacob’s sleeping form. “He tried to have a party in his dorm in high school,” she pauses, whispers “with a keg.”

“Oh, bad boy huh?”

“The funniest part,” she looks at Jake once more, “his room was directly over the Resident director’s suite. He could have gotten away with it, if they hadn’t turned the music up so loud.”

“Wait, you mean they got the keg into the dorm?”

“Yup!” Mako nods and a smug smile crosses her face.

“Really?”

“Yup!”

“You’d think he’d have a better understanding of his alcohol tolerance, if he’s been drinking since he was, what? 14?”

“Umm, probably 15, but yea!” She smirks again, “See why I don’t feel so bad for him? He did this to himself. I _could_ have left  him there at the party, but I didn’t. That is as sympathetic as I get.”

“Ouch! Remind me not to cross you.”

She smiles, leans forward and places a gentle kiss on Raleigh’s nose. Than leans her head onto his shoulder, pulling her knees up to her chest.  She nestles into Raleigh’s side on the couch, watching her drunk brother sleep off his hangover. “Oh I don’t think that’ll happen.”

Raleigh lays his arm around Mako’s shoulder, and places a soft kiss to her hair, “I’ll try not to let that happen.” He smiles, “Oh, and Mako?”

She looks up at Raleigh, “hmm?”

“Happy New Year.”


End file.
